Senator BIRMINGHAM (South Australia—Minister for Education and Training and Manager of Government Business in the Senate) (14:48): The government are proud of every step we've taken in terms of our work for the Great Barrier Reef—our work to ensure that the Great Barrier Reef was taken off the endangered list, our work to deal with dredge spoil, our work to deliver a reef plan that is a long-term plan to improve water quality in the reef, our work to ensure that the reef has the funding that it deserves. But I'm not going to sit here or stand here and take lectures from Senator Keneally on due diligence. Perhaps we could talk about Sydney Metro as an example of due diligence. The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Birmingham, please resume your seat. Government senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order on my right! Senator Wong on a point of order. Senator Wong: The point of order is direct relevance. The government's given half a billion dollars away. We want to know about the due diligence in a circumstance where the minister has given five different figures. It is a reasonable question. Could the minister please answer it? The PRESIDENT: As senators know, I cannot instruct a minister how to answer a question. You reminded the minister of the terms of the question. I take this opportunity to do so and note he has 29 seconds remaining to answer. Senator Birmingham. Senator BIRMINGHAM: I took the initial question to answer and have simply had repeats of it. To help you out, $412 million was the cost of Sydney Metro—$412 million that could have, in the New South Wales equivalent, gone to something like the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Birmingham, please resume your seat. Senator Collins, a point of order? Senator Jacinta Collins: Yes, again on direct relevance. We have the minister here ducking and weaving because the minister cannot provide information that demonstrates any due diligence. The PRESIDENT: Senator Collins, what is your point of order? Senator Jacinta Collins: What Metro has got to do with this is irrelevant. The PRESIDENT: Senator Birmingham, it is a struggle to relate a project I'm not familiar with to the Great Barrier Reef. I'll ask you to return to the question. Senator BIRMINGHAM: I don't know; what are we to assume from the Labor Party's questions—that they would rather $400 million or $500 million was not being spent on the Great Barrier Reef? Is that what we are to assume from the Labor Party's questions—that they would rather the future of the reef did not have this investment, this focus, this continuing to build— (Time expired)